Fergana, Uzbekistan

🇺🇿 Fergana, or Ferghana, is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 420 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km west of Andijan, and less than 20 km from the Kyrgyzstan border.

While the area has been populated for thousands of years, the modern city was founded in 1876.

History Fergana first appears in written records in the 5th-century. However, archeological evidence demonstrates that the city had been populated since the Chalcolithic period. Like many other Central Asian places in the sixth and seventh-centuries, Fergana was ruled by the Western Turkic Khaganate. Although it was still predominantly inhabited by eastern Iranians, many Turks had also started to settle there. The city of Fergana was refounded in 1876 as a garrison town and colonial appendage to Margilan (22 km or 13+1⁄2 miles to the northwest) by the Russian Empire.

It was initially named New Margelan (Новый Маргелан), then renamed Skobelov (Скобелев) in 1907 after the first Russian military governor of the Fergana Valley, Mikhail Skobelev. In 1924, after the Soviet Union's reconquest of the region from the Basmachi movement, the name was changed to Fergana, after the province of which it was the centre.

The industrial base of Fergana was developed in the 20th century. Industry in the city included textile manufacturing and a nitric fertiliser plant. Some of the industrial development was a result of Evacuation in the Soviet Union during World War II.

Fergana has been a centre for oil production in the Fergana Valley since the region's first oil refinery was built near the city in 1908. Since then, more refineries have been added, and Fergana is one of the most important centres of oil refining in Uzbekistan. Natural gas from western Uzbekistan is transported by pipeline to the valley, where it is used to manufacture fertilizer. The Great Fergana Canal, built almost entirely by hand during the 1930s, passes through the northern part of the city and was completed in 1939. During its construction, the canal and the city were widely photographed by the noted photographer Max Penson. With a western loan Fergana is able to modernize its refinery and also reduce air pollution emissions.

Architecture Fergana has a high proportion of Russian, Soviet Koreans and Tatar inhabitants compared to other Fergana Valley cities. With its wide, tree-lined boulevards and Tsarist-era buildings, and Russian spoken frequently on the streets, the city has a distinctly different feel from the rest of the region.

Economy: Industry At present, 38 large industrial enterprises, 7930 small industrial enterprises, 446 joint ventures include the Fergana Oil Refinery, the Azot Production Association, the Quvasoy Quartz Joint-Stock Company, the Eurasian TAPO-Disk, Avtooyna, and DEU Textile joint ventures.

They export oil, cotton, food, canned goods, construction materials, car discs, spare parts, agricultural products, and other products to foreign countries.

Tourist Industry • Museum of Local Studies – with displays of natural history, photographs, and local handicrafts • Regional Theatre – in 1877 the house of General Mikhail “Old Bloody Eyes” Skobelev • Fergana State University - built in 1902.

Sports clubs • FC Neftchi Fergana • FK Istiqlol Fergana.